New review of Best Gay Stories

Think of this annual series, now in year two, as a starter kit for readers of gay writing, fiction and otherwise, who might not otherwisehave access to the sources from which Berman culled 18 stories. Some are erotic, some are literary, some are romantic, some dabble with fantasy, some tackle coming out – a perennial of queer storytelling. There aren’t any duds, but highlights include Sam J. Miller’s on-target tale about racial insensitivity, “Haunting Your House”; Trebor Healey’s elegiac account of a young man memorializing hislover’s death; Christopher Schmidt’s trilogy of short-shorts observing queer life, “Three Scenes”;Craig Laurance Gidney’s recasting of French poet and libertine Arthur Rimbaud, “Strange Alphabets; and David Levithan’s charming account of a teen’s babysitting adventure and his encounter with “Starbucks Boy.” Anthologies promising the “Best” are entirely subjective; for every story included there are certainly three or four just as good that don’t make the cut. But Berman – founder and publisher of Lethe Press – has a good eye for queer prose, as this quality compilation attests.